A week of nothingness. I’ll give you some highlights if there are any, but we had zeroes in all of our categories of numbers this week.

Tuesday:
Forgot to write in my journal. I didn’t even notice it until now. I must’ve been pretty tired.

Wednesday:
On the way home and we pulled up to this intersection to press the crosswalk button. I wave at this African American guy who is standing beside this Caucasian girl.
“Hello!” I said cheerfully.
Without responding to the greeting, he asked, “Do you guys have the Mormon Bible?”
I paused for a second. “Yes, we do. Would you like one–”
“Who do you worship?” he added.
I quickly gave an answer I was very confident in. “Jesus Christ.”
“Jesus Christ isn’t God–!” commented the lady, but she was cut off by the man.
“Who started your church?”
I gave a mental sigh and a longer pause. “Joseph Smith.” The Spirit was warning me of the man’s intentions of arguing and told me to get prepared to leave.
“Tell me a little about Joseph Smith. I bet I know some things that you don’t know.” His voice was argumentative.
“Sir,” I replied courteously, after which the Spirit prompted me to say, “we don’t want to argue with anyone.”
It was clear the man was taken aback in surprise that the Spirit had discerned his intentions and his tone immediately switched from the offensive to the defensive: “I don’t want to argue! You’re supposed to tell me about Joseph Smith! You are Mormons, right? Tell me about Joseph Smith!”
Another mental sigh and I pondered for a short moment, to which I was prompted to simply say, “We believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, just like Moses, Abraham and Isaiah.”
“And what did he find?” it was clear that his original intentions were shattered.
“What? Do you mean the golden plates?”
“Yeah; and let me tell you something:” he leaned in close and continued, “those plates … are not of this world….”
I blinked and said, “Yep,” full well knowing that they were of heaven and not of man.
He nodded and then proceeded to walk out into the intersection across the grain of the current oncoming traffic who still had a green light.

Yup.
Anyway, I felt like Amulek versus Zeezrom.

Thursday:
I ripped my pants while preparing for a Nerf war with the Mojave River Elders, but Dan fixed them, so don’t worry.
Other than that, I had Thanksgiving dinner with the Wales family, which was very good. It was tasty, and he made some good Key Lime Pie.

Friday:
Nothing written.

Saturday:
Exchanges in the Mojave River Ward with Elder Cooke, this time. It was a good exchange, for the most part. We did a long bike ride down into the depths of their area and taught two new investigators the Restoration; this lesson was very hazardous in the beginning, but in the end we both gave very fervent testimonies of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and the Spirit most assuredly permeated the environment. I hope to hear many good things from the Mojave River Ward.
It did rain that da

No, they’ll be good now (the pants). Besides I’ve already spent a large sum of money recently….

Oh, by the way! I was wondering something. We’re having a Nerf war soon in zone activity, and I was wondering if today at the store I could buy a Nerf gun for that and just have that be part of Christmas. Is that okay with you guys? If not, it’s fine, you can say so!

y, so we had to stay in partially.

Sunday:
Dan fixed my pants.

There’s the week. Sorry it was so boring, but at least you didn’t have to live it.

I was glad to see your zone conferences are getting better. I remember when you first were out you were saying how boring they were. Kind of makes me wonder whether the conferences are getting better or you are? Hmmm. Then I read how you are seeing Elder Memmott as an “awesome and very loving leader” and I’m sure it’s you that’s getting better. It’s great to see what a powerful force a mission can be for changing a man’s life, whether it’s yours or Dan’s. It could take a normal person like me years to change the way I see people without the benefit of devoting all day every day to the work of the Lord. I’m really looking forward to next summer and getting to know you again.

Thank you, Dad. It was District Meetings, actually, that I didn’t like, but I like them now.

We had tithing settlement with the bishop yesterday and he told us how much he enjoys reading your letters. He also said he wished Brady had written more. We have a new family in our ward whose son just left for Portland, OR, and he only writes a sentence or two each week, his Mom said. So I guess we’re lucky that you like to write.

Ha ha, yeah, I guess that’s a good thing. I mean, it’s tempting to write shorter letters, because then I can spend more time just focusing on talking to people, but it’s whatever. After all, the Stake President promised that “the better the letter, the better the missionary”.

That was a cool story about your visit to the Green Tree ward. It sounds like you guys are getting how to do street contacting and not being offended when people say they’re not interested in our church. I taught a lesson on a similar topic in high priests last week. We were studying President Hunter’s lesson on Faith and Testimony. In one part, PH says how he has sympathy for young people who have doubts about the church. I asked the high priests if we have sympathy for non believers or people struggling with doubts or going inactive. They said no, we usually get defensive with them, have fear that they are going to influence our children, look down on them, and a bunch of other negative reactions. I felt the spirit teaching when I said we don’t have to defend the gospel to these people. God is perfectly capable of defending it. I emphasized that we should stand as witnesses, but we don’t have to “prove” that it’s true. The truthfulness of the gospel is self-evident for anyone who will listen. Add in the Holy Ghost and it is undeniable. It’s when we turn away from the spirit and let ourselves be influenced more by the philosophies of men that our faith begins to fail. I asked, should we expose our children to these “philosophies of men, mingled with scripture”. And I answered most emphatically, yes! If we are not exposing them to it and discussing it with them, then we are not reading the Book of Mormon with them. Because there is not better discussion and revealer of the doctrines of Satan than the Book of Mormon.

I agree. A great example of that is John Pennington’s experience with the person trying to insult church, and how he responded with, “It doesn’t matter if I can’t remember what happened on Sunday.” The Spirit will always put things into our mind to help us retort when necessary, and if it isn’t necessary to retort, then he will speak peace to our mind to help us know that the Gospel is still true anyway.

Thanksgiving was nice. We were all glad it’s our last one to have without you and Garrett for a while. It was nice to have a couple days off work, but I’m sort of dreading going back. Not really, but it’s never super fun to go back after being off.

Yeah, I’m excited to get to spend Thanksgiving with you guys again. You guys getting off of breaks is like us leaving a good p-day, ha ha.

It was interesting to hear you say you’re getting excited to get married. You’re going to be busy when you get home.

Sounds like you guys were freezing last week. The warm is really trying to hang on here and it was in the 50s on Saturday. This is nice because November is about over and it hasn’t gotten very cold so that’s one month less of winter. We were under a winter storm warning since Saturday night, but so far no snow.

Well, I’m excited for your letters again today. Fortunately, Thanksgiving is not on Monday so hopefully the libraries will be open today and you can email us. I’m super-proud of you and how successful your mission has been so far. I know our family has been so blessed.

Yep, I’m here, ha ha

Have a great week! All my love,

Dad

Sun 11/27, 7:11 PM

You;

Jonah Jensen (jensen.jonah@myldsmail.net)

Hello Elder!

Well, it’s officially been 25 years of torture! Just kidding! Your dad has been a great husband and father, even if he farts every 5 minutes. He took a half day off and we did some shopping and went to a nice Italian dinner.

Thanksgiving was really good at uncle John’s house. How was yours? I wish the family you were with would have sent us pictures through a text. Many of the families in your mission posted pictures on the facebook site.

Good news! Sariah did make the top team she wanted! We are super excited! I’m going to send you some pictures in a separate email. I guess you got your advent calendar. I’m going to start shopping soon so I would say that anything you get from home over this next month in the form of a box, you shouldn’t open until Christmas. I will tell you if you can open it. Anything you want please tell me soon.

Have a great week!

Love always,

Mom

That sounds nice. And tasty.

Our Thanksgiving was good. they’re a more awkward family, though. There was only 1 new family member there, and she was mean to her grandkids XD

Awesome to hear! I was praying for that. I did get the calendar, but it’s broken. I still love the sentiment, though, and the chocolates themselves are in tact! Ha ha.

As far as Christmas, there was only one thing I was thinking about that another missionary has, and that’s a practice (emphasis on practice) butterfly knife. I like things to do with my hands when studying and stuff, and right now I swing scissors around and stuff, but I think a practice butterfly knife could be fun.

We had a really long Zone Conference that lasted from 10:30 AM to 4:30 PM, which was actually really good. We started in the chapel, but moved around to different rooms, which was really nice; all in all, the conference was very enlightening. We talked a lot about working with members and stuff like that, and we learned a lot of different things that we can do to help members understand how we really want to work with them and what they can do to help our efforts as well.

It was a really good day. Elder Memmott is an awesome and very loving leader–he was my MTC companion. I didn’t like him in the MTC, but we both have grown a lot since then, I think.

The highlight was probably when we decided to do some street contacting in the freezing cold, and the first people we talked to were like, “I don’t believe in the Book of Mormon or Joseph Smith.”

So we were like, “That’s cool,” and we just kept talking to them, talking about Jesus Christ and things, and they said again that they didn’t believe what we did. So we just kept talking and stuff, and they emphasized again, but with each emphasis, their hearts were softened more and more. By the end of it all, they both requested a copy of the Book of Mormon and–while Elder Memmott was talking to one of the two–I gave two pamphlets to the one I was talking to and answered a lot of his questions. They said we could come back. I wish I could be there for that.

Thursday:

We got the number of Marissa, so now we can text her ahead of time and see if she’s free.

Other than that, we had service and helped Reatha with her family history, which was pretty cool, and when it got really dark, we worked on my sword out in Dan’s shop.

Friday:

Just the usual. Weekly planning and such. Dan made some good biscuits and gravy, this time the gravy being called Eggs A La Golden or something.

Saturday:

There was a wedding reception, which made my pretty trunky to get married. I’m excited for that, I guess.

Sunday:

At church, there was a homecoming for a missionary. That obviously made me trunky.

It’s kind of sad, but I’m solidly in my mid-50s now. I remember years ago looking ahead and doing the math and thinking I’d be in my 50s when Sariah graduates high school. I thought I would be old and wrinkly by then. Thanks to your Mom, who has been my personal fitness instructor, I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life. I’ve even noticed that my hip, which was starting to hurt a lot has been feeling better. It reminds me of D&C 84:33,

“For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken, and the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies.”

I definitely have a testimony of this scripture and the Word of Wisdom that teaches you how to eat and not eat.

Yeah, you definitely do not look or act old, but you’ve got wisdom on your side, so it’s a double-edged sword. The word of wisdom does have some amazing promises. It’s crazy. I never knew all of them.

Had another week fly by. This week will, too. Tuesday is Mom’s and my actual 25th anniversary. November 22nd was the date we got married in 1991. I’m going to get off work a little early and we’re going to go shopping and buy each other a nice gift. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving. We’re going to eat at Uncle John’s. Of course we’ll miss you and Garrett. But we will all feel so proud that you guys are on your missions.

What do you mean by “actual”? But hey, Garrett and I will be home for the next Thanksgiving.

I don’t know if you’ve heard much from Reggie lately. I stopped and asked Karter how he was doing yesterday at church. Karter said “He’s doing much better.” I asked him if something was wrong, and he said that Reggie had been struggling for a while. I didn’t really ask him what about, but if you have his email, maybe you should drop him a note of encouragement. You guys are bearing down on your last 6 months, so stay strong.

Alright, I’ll think about what to say and do that.

Athen has to work at Best Buy on Black Friday which means he has to be there at 6 on Thanksgiving. We should totally outlaw retail stores from being open on Thanksgiving. It’s a crime against humanity. There’s no reason Black Friday has to start on Thursday. Lame.

I thought that they weren’t going to let it start on Thursday? That really bothers me, because I think Black Friday is a horrible holiday.

I love Thanksgiving. It’s such a spiritual holiday. Plus whoever scheduled it to be on Thursday was a genius because so many companies figure they might as well close on Friday, too, so you’re guaranteed a four-day weekend.

Ha ha, that makes sense. It is a really great holiday, though.

Sounds like you guys need a few more investigators. I pray for you and your work every day, so I’ll make sure to continue to focus on the finding part. I’m glad you are staying close to Dan. I remember as a new member feeling lost sometimes. Have you talked to him about receiving the preisthood? Seems like he should be able to receive the Aaronic priesthood fairly soon. Maybe it’s six months. But make sure you point his mind toward getting the priesthood and getting to the temple ASAP.

You can receive both priesthoods as soon as you feel ready. He’s already recieved the Aaronic. It’s exciting.

Speaking of the temple, I’ve been working a bit up on FamilySearch the last few weeks. The Church has done an amazing job with this web application to make doing family history work interesting and exciting. My Mom is going to bring some stories to Thanksgiving and we’re going to put them all into FamilySearch so you’ll be able to read about your ancestors when you are able to get back on the internet.

Oh, that’s exciting. I wish I could be there.

The family is doing great. We are being blessed by your mission. Thanks for all your hard work. Keep the faith.

I conducted, I suppose you could say, my first district meeting on this day. It went okay. We just had thoughts, played “get to know you” games and I gave a pretty crappy training thing–or at least it was in my opinion. There were no comments from anyone else, so I’m left to my own devices on that, and I sure as heck would not consider it good.

Turns out I’ll probably only be giving two district meetings, because we have a zone conference and two zone meetings in this five-week transfer.

Wednesday:

I really don’t remember. I forgot to write. Isn’t that sad?

Thursday:

We had the Lord’s Table for service and stuff, so that was fun, for lack of even a differing term. I just served donuts the whole time.

On top of that, we just helped Reatha and Dan move Yvonne’s stuff around. Not a terribly eventful day.

Friday:

We started out this day waiting for Brother McElhinney and call us to request service from us, because he said he would, but then when nobody could get a hold of him, we just went to the Mojave River Elders’ apartment, had lunch and had another big Nerf war. It was a blast.

Other than splitting some wood at Dan’s though, not much happened.

Saturday:

Not the best day, but it was fun. We went over to Dan’s for laundry and he asked if I wanted to do a woodworking project, so now a beautiful-looking wooden sword is in the making. I’ll show you a picture when it’s finished.

Also had a dinner with a bunch of seniors where all the young men and young women served us food. That was funny.

Sunday:

A couple unusual occurrences happened today. Brother Haas was not there to teach Sunday school, so we taught the lesson (which went well), then Elder’s Quorum got out fifteen minutes early, which was annoying because we had an appointment at 2:30, so we had to wait around for a long time, and then when we went to the appointment, the mother had gone into labor, so they weren’t home. A valid excuse, I would suppose.

So, because of that, Eric Dement came with us contacting. It was really good, actually. We think that an Ice Cream Man might become an investigator, but we have no support behind that theory beside the fact that we were passing out cards and he was like, “I love Jesus!” and held his hand out for a card.

Hope you got a chance to vote. There was nothing more funny than watching Trump win the election. I was in Atlanta and I watched Fox News on TV, and I had the NY Times and Bing up on my laptop watching the votes pour in for him. The entire world is shocked. There have been protests in the big cities all across the country from the America-haters who can’t stand a democracy.

Yeah, I voted. I voted for Trump.

When the night started out, Bing showed Clinton with an 89.7% chance of winning the election. These crazy left-wing media people have totally drank their own cool-aid and fallen for their own propaganda. They have been publishing fake polls all year long showing Clinton was in the lead and now they’re all shocked.

That’s what I heard, about the media thing, ha ha.

This is what the electoral map ended up looking like. (Let me know if it doesn’t come through and I’ll send it as an attachment.) The dark red states are the one’s Trump “flipped” from usually voting Democrat to voting for him.

There are some great videos floating around of celebrities mocking Trump on TV saying he’s never going to be president that it was a joke that he was running. It shows how massively they underestimated the anger the population has against the corrupt government elite.

Yeah, I know. I mean, he seemed like he was going to be an idiot either way, but now I’m starting to feel that maybe things will be okay, if Satan is stirring up the hearts of the people against him so strongly.

Anywho. So sounds like you had some members arguing with you guys about the restoration and fasting doctrine. That’s kind of awkward. The missionaries are called and set apart and have the Spirit with them. It would probably do you well to learn from them.

Lol yeah….

Sounds like you had a lot of service last week. It would be cool if you could tell us what the project you worked on was when you tell us about your service. Even if it was just cleaning out someone’s garage.

It was building a shed, I believe.

I think I forgot to mention this last week, but I got another unexpected bonus at work a few weeks ago. So much is changing at our work from the owner’s of our company to our fiscal year start/end that it’s hard to keep track of where we’re at. I won’t say how much, but let’s just say it easily pays for your entire mission again. I can’t tell you how blessed we have been as a family while you’re out.

Holy cow, that’s amazing to hear…. The Lord does treat us very well, ha ha.

It was a pretty normal week here at home. My trip to Mercedes in Atlanta went really well. We (sorta) celebrated Anna’s Gotcha Day. Joel and I watched some YouTube videos about how the sum of all natural numbers to infinity is -1/12. They can prove it mathematically.

That’s interesting. Not sure how useful, but interesting, ha ha. Probably furthering the human race in some way.

Sariah is getting geared up for club volleyball season. She’s going to be playing for Club V this year (the club owned by the head coach of Lone Peak). We had a parents meeting Saturday and I was very impressed with their philosophy and style. Unfortunately, it’s in Bountiful so we’ll be driving a lot.

Oh, that sounds like fun. What’s their “philosophy and style”?

Athen’s been going to Katie’s more so I don’t think I even saw here this week. But he seems to be happy right now.

Congrats on being a district leader. You’re the best! I know this year is going to fly by for me with my YM stake calling having to plan out stake high adventure next June. It already feels like we’re running out of time. Ha!

Eh, leadership doesn’t really mean much, ha ha. They drill that into your head on the mission.

You are having such an amazing and successful mission! I’m so proud of you and am looking forward to learning from you growing together.

Keep the faith and keep working hard!

All my love,

Dad

P.S. Hope you got some new pants.

P.S. I did.

Jonah David Jensen

Today, 12:47 PM

Susan Jensen (susan.jensen@hotmail.com)

Yeah, I know. You’d never expect Dad to be as old as he is. That might sound rude, but it’s a compliment, I promise.

We do not have any Thanksgiving plans yet. Nobody loves us quite as much as Shrelle and Bre did.

I gave a training in district meeting which went pretty good, actually. Apparently, while I was giving the training, Sister Mumford and Brown thought to themselves that I’d make a good *district leader.

Taught a lesson to Yesenia, which went really well! She had lots of awesome questions that could be answered perfectly by the truths taught in the church, and she definitely felt the Spirit there. She might be moving soon if relationships with her and her husband don’t improve drastically, though….

Wednesday:

Exchanges with Elder Gibbons. It was full of service and service with more service. I really like Elder Gibbons though, he’s an awesome guy. Basically, we started with service at Lord’s Table, then had lunch shortly, because we had service thirty minutes after we got home. We went to the service and the people weren’t there, so we came back and finished lunch, then went to a baptismal interview for the Santa Fe sisters. Elder Gibbons gave that. Also, I left both my belt and my proselyting shoes at home, so we went back to my apartment and grabbed those before heading back to the Mojave River ward and doing more service.

Then, we had dinner and worked on fixing up my Nerf gun to make it look cooler and work better.

Thursday:

Well, not much happened. We helped Dan out a bit with building stuff, and had dinner at the Garcia’s–an experience which I never want to relive. The first thirty minutes to an hour were spent with Brother Garcia showing us YouTube videos that certainly did not invite the spirit (especially because one was a video of this black guy, who thought he knew everything about the Bible, Bible bashing with some of our missionaries and insulting them and stuff), then as we tried to teach a lesson, Sister Garcia was arguing with us about doctrine! It was like, “What the freak are you talking about? You’re not even active in the church, and you’re trying to correct the Restoration lesson?“

The whole day was spent trying to weekly plan and failing miserably, but still eventually finishing somehow.

*I got called to be a district leader. Thanks, President Taylor, for ruining my streak of not getting any leadership.

Saturday:

Worked on Brother O’Day’s shed all day again, then did laundry until 10:25. Barely made it home in time.

Sunday:

Pretty much nothing. Dan and Reatha tried to argue with us about doctrinal topics again, and I snapped (a little) and was just like, “I’ve been a member of the church for nineteen years. I know how fasting works.”

I think I was grumpy because of fasting.

Well, there’s my week! It was a good one. I’ll send everyone a vlog of my last week, actually, so look for that. If you don’t get it, I don’t know how the world works.

Hello my wonderful son! I hope this week has been good. We just had the Weeks family over for dinner. They are getting their kitchen remodeled so it’s not easy to cook dinner. I just love that family. I’m so comfortable around them. They’re an awesome family. He was a great Young Men’s President. Is he still the YMP?
Lone Peak varsity volleyball won the State championship! It was intense. Super close against PG with the score going back and forth. Sariah has club tryouts tomorrow. I hope she will get on a top team with a good coach. That’s awesome. Some people out here know about the legend of Lone Peak, but mostly because of TJ Haws and Tyler Haws who both play for BYU basketball now, ha ha.
Halloween was fun because I saw so many cute kids and got several big hugs from my primary kids. I love my primary kids!!Daylight savings is making me tired. I feel like I need to go to bed now. Is it getting dark early there? On the FB Rancho page I was told transfers are today so I’m wondering what will be happening with you. I saw you in a group picture someone posted. I loved seeing you with all the other missionaries! Yeah, it’s dark around 5:30 now, I guess, lol. But, I’m staying in the area with Elder Francis, so all is good.
Moki died. Dotty is sad. But she wasn’t doing to well. Awww, that’s really sad…. Do you think Grandma will get a new dog?
I’m not sure again with Athen and Katie. He said she hates people “pushing” it on her. Who’s pushing it. She was the one talking about them like they were getting married. I like her but it’s like he is walking on eggshells most of the time. Time will tell. Yeah, that’s true. If only he could go into the temple and ask; I feel like he’d have his answer right away!
Joel got himself a new drum set. He’s pretty excited about it. Looks nice. That’s awesome. I’m sure he’ll tell me about it.
That’s all I can think of for this week. I love you sweetie!!! 😘
Mother

Do you have any news today? Must be kind of strange knowing that your life could completely change every six weeks. As far as the people you’re around and the people you’re living with. What’s that like? When I was in college, I sometimes changed roommates and residence every six months to a year, but that’s an eternity compared to your time line.

Nope, everything’s still the same. But, the Upland zone has mostly reformed up here in the Hesperia A zone. It’s definitely a weird experience. At first, I didn’t think much of it, but when I went back down to Upland and saw how many people actually really liked me, it became a bit of a different experience.

We had Andy Weeks and his family over for dinner. He said that a friend of his had a son that just got called down to Rancho mission. I didn’t get his name, but it was fun to talk about the coincidence.

Whoa, you need to find out about that, ha ha.

Daylight savings time ended, so now it gets darker and I get tireder earlier.

Hopefully I’ll get to email with you on Monday. I’m headed to Atlanta in the afternoon and won’t be back until late Wednesday night. Meeting with Mercedes-Benz again.

That’s cool. Is that going well?

Did you have any good meetings or lessons this week? I know you’re super-busy, but we haven’t heard many details from you the last few weeks.

I’m gonna’ actually send a Vlog home.

We had a good testimony this week. How are the testimony meetings in your ward? Are the saints bearing good testimony?

Yeah, there’s tons and tons of converts here, so everyone has great testimonies. I really love the testimonies of the little kids.

Last week flew by again. My calling is keeping me busy. I worked on stake YM stuff for 5 hours on Thursday night. I had a meeting for it at 7 a.m. this morning. It’s a lot and won’t really let up until after the high adventure in June.

Ha ha, well, luckily, since this is the latter half of my mission, the months will go by quick from what I’ve heard.

I spent some time this weekend clicking around on FamilySearch.org. It’s unbelievably amazing what they’re doing now. They are starting to bring in all of the indexing records they have had indexers creating and help you to link images of the indexed source documents to your ancestors. It lets you look at the death certificate (or whatever) image and try to verify that it applies to your ancestor. It’s incredibly easy to do. It’s actually kind of fun too because it works so well.

Yeah, I wish I could do family history work a bit more out here, but since we can’t go on non-LDS sites, that makes it hard.

Don’t know if you noticed, but the Church did a world wide broadcast on Saturday. Elder Holland led a discussion for the new teacher’s councils in the church. I haven’t watched it yet cause it was over 90 minutes. I was just wondering if you got to watch it or heard anything about it.

I have not. Haven’t gotten on a computer until now.

Family’s doing well. Lone Peak girls VB won the state championship last night and it was great fun to watch. Some pretty athletic and talented girls. That will Sariah in a few years now that they have a great new coach.